The goals of this proposal are to determine if recent technological advances in the cultivation of anaerobic bacteria can be utilized to enhance the recovery of these organisms from shellfish. Human anaerobic intestinal flora has never been successfully used as an indicator of sewage contamination in shellfish. The reasons for this lack of attention can be ascribed to the difficulty of isolating and cultivating anaerobic bacteria using traditional available methods. However, it is well documented, that the concentrations of anaerobics in the human colon well outnumber facultative bacteria such as coliforms by a factor of three logs (Gorbach and Bartlett 1974). This being the case, anaerobic bacteria may have great potential as indicators of human sewage contamination in shellfish. The objective of this investigation are threefold: 1) to determine if the improvement of anaerobic conditions during isolation of Bacteroides vulgatis will enhance recovery of this organism from shellfish, 2) to determine if the improvement of the anaerobic conditions will enhance the recovery of anaerobic bacteria on standard place counts from shellfish, 3) to determine the usefulness of prereduced anaerobically sterilized (PRAS) selected media in species identification of this organism. Meeting these objectives will help determine the potential usefulness of Bacteroides vulgatis as human specific fecal indicator in shellfish. The support of one undergraduate and one graduate student is requested for the project.